I just read this over at Gizmag, the world's first hybrid dump truck is being driven in Sweden, a development of Volvo. Volvo says they are going to start selling large hybrid trucks in 2009. World's first hybrid refuse truck launched in Sweden
Wow, that is cool. Seems like a great application for a Hybrid vehicle, plus the added benefit of noise reduction. I wonder whose battery they are using.
That's a great idea. Hybrid technology, or even pure electric, seems perfectly suited for large urban vehicles. If only we could reduce the need for garbage trucks altogether! Aside from reducing our garbage, we could change the way we use garbage trucks. I'm not sure how it works where you live, but around here, each apartment building and business contracts with its own garbage company. This results in about seven different smelly behemoths running around the same neighbourhood, often on the same day. Why not have a blanket municipal contract with one company?
...or perhaps a grant of some sort that encourages multi-family buildings to invest in some sort of centralized trash compactor? Just thinking out loud here.
Yeah, that could help, but it all gets compacted in the truck anyway. I still think it's better to reduce the overall amount of garbage. Mandatory composting and paper recycling in homes and offices could make a huge difference.
Most places in the US have some sort of city wide or country wide contract, here in Korea the dump trucks are government vehicles and the crews are contracted by the county. It really makes not much sense to have seven companies doing the same job, other than possibly lowering the price of the service.
These have been around for awhile now, but I haven't seen them in Santa Clara County CA. Hopefully VTA wil check them out. They have some fuel cell buses but I read they cost a fortune to run : Gillig Corporation
Don't have time to read the whole article just now, but looking forward to learning what two feuls the Sweedish Hybrid runs on. Is is petrol and wine? Wine and electric? Red wine and white wine? Like I said, looking forward to reading the full article.
